Conversations with Jenna:
You’re one of the Liberty League’s best defenders. How do you develop the inner fire to excel in a league that may, on any given week, have three teams ranked in the top 15 nationally?
The Liberty League is incredibly competitive and full of amazing athletes, and I honestly love that. I’m a very competitive person, so playing against great attackers and defenders pushes me to be better. It can be easy to feel intimidated when you know how talented the players across the league are, but I try to approach every game with confidence and think, “Why not me today? Why can’t I be the one to make that stop?” I also have the privilege of practicing every day against some of the best attackers in the league, alongside an incredible defensive unit, and they constantly make me better. At the end of the day, I try to compete as hard as I can, trust my teammates, and have fun doing it.
Let’s say a friend is coming to watch you play (having never seen a match before). The friend arrives just after the match starts. Where should the friend expect to see you do on the field?
It depends on who wins the draw. If we win it, you’ll probably see me sprinting up the field to be an outlet for our circle players and help us get the ball over the restraining line. If we lose the draw, I’ll be matched up with whoever my assignment is that day, tracking them back into the eight-meter and helping our defense get organized and ready for the possession.
What keys are there that tell you the team is playing well (regardless of the score)?
For us, the biggest indicators are our communication, chemistry, and energy. When we’re playing our best, it really feels like we’re one unit. Everyone shows up wanting to succeed, but even more importantly, wanting the person next to them to succeed. We’re a gritty team that takes a lot of pride in doing the hard work—winning 50/50 balls, communicating through every possession, and executing the little things that might not show up on the stat sheet. When we’re doing those things and playing for each other, you can feel it regardless of what the scoreboard says.
Is there a key to taking the ball away from an opponent?
A lot of it is reading the situation and knowing when it’s worth taking a risk. I’m naturally a pretty aggressive defender, so I love going after an attacker’s stick and trying some riskier checks. I actually played attack until high school, and I think that helps me defensively because I can read cradling patterns, anticipate passes, and sometimes predict what an attacker is going to do next. The other huge part is trusting my teammates. If I’m going to take those risks, there are going to be times when I get beat. I can play aggressively because I have complete confidence that the rest of our defense has my back. I wouldn’t be able to play the way I do without that trust.
Did you intern anywhere over the last two summers?
Two summers ago, I interned with a biotechnology startup in Tel Aviv that was developing rapid at-home and point-of-care urine diagnostics. I helped collect samples from a hospital for product testing and worked closely with the company’s leadership, particularly helping with communication and business development involving American donors and industry contacts. My internship ended earlier than expected because I had to return home due to the Israel-Iran conflict, but I continued working with the company remotely. I spent the rest of the summer volunteering in Philadelphia. At Broad Street Love, I helped serve meals to hundreds of people experiencing poverty and homelessness while also having the opportunity to sit down and talk with guests. I also volunteered with Begin the Turn, a mobile addiction medicine unit in Kensington, where I checked in patients with opioid use disorder and collected information about their substance use, housing, and food security.
This past summer, I participated in Jefferson Abington Hospital’s nine-week Pre-Med Program. I shadowed physicians across specialties including emergency medicine, surgery, internal medicine, OB/GYN, oncology, neuroscience, and the NICU. It gave me the opportunity to see medicine from a lot of different perspectives and learn from physicians and other members of the healthcare team.
What did you take away from those internships?
The biggest thing was how much I value working directly with people and doing work that has a real impact on someone else. My biotechnology internship gave me experience with the science and business sides of healthcare, while my experiences at Broad Street Love and Begin the Turn showed me how much circumstances like poverty, housing insecurity, addiction, and access to care can affect someone’s health.
At Jefferson, I was able to see how physicians bring the science and human sides of medicine together. Across all of these experiences, I learned how important it is to listen to people, meet them where they are, and treat them with dignity
You are a member of the Red Cross Club and a board member of Chabad. What do you do with those groups?
Chabad has become a huge part of my experience at Rochester. I started by attending Shabbat dinners, holidays, and weekly classes, then joined the student board my sophomore year before becoming President my junior and senior years. In that role, I help organize events, welcome new students, and work to make Chabad a place where everyone feels comfortable and supported. That became especially important after October 7th, when a lot of Jewish students on campus were struggling and needed a place where they could openly express what they were feeling. Chabad really became a second family for me, and as President, I’ve tried to make sure other students can find that same sense of belonging. It has given me some of my closest friendships and taught me how powerful a strong community can be.
How did you acquire the T-A position in calculus?
Calculus actually wasn’t something that always came easily to me. I struggled with it a little in high school, but Professor Madhu at Rochester completely changed the way I looked at the subject. She helped me understand it in a different way, and I ended up really enjoying it and doing very well in the class. When TA positions opened, I reached out to her because I thought it would be really rewarding to help other students who might be having the same experience I once had.
I applied with her as a reference and was selected as a TA. I ended up doing it for two semesters, leading weekly recitations for more than 25 students as well as optional review sessions and one-on-one meetings. It taught me that being good at something and being able to teach it are very different skills. I learned to adapt the way I explained concepts depending on how each student thought and, hopefully, help students gain some of the confidence in calculus that Professor Madhu helped me develop.
Your career goal is to be an emergency room physician in underserved areas. How did you choose that goal?
My interest in medicine actually started with being a patient. When I was 11, I was diagnosed with bilateral osteochondritis dissecans in my knees and spent most of a year in long-leg braces. The physicians who cared for me eventually got me back to playing the sports I loved, but what stayed with me was how they treated me when I was scared and frustrated. They showed me that being a great physician is about more than treating an injury.
My interest in emergency medicine and underserved communities developed later through volunteering and shadowing at Temple University Hospital. I grew up in the suburbs only a few miles from North Philadelphia, but I had never really understood the enormous health disparities that existed so close to me. Learning that life expectancy could differ by nearly 20 years between communities just miles apart really affected me. In Temple’s emergency department, I loved the pace, teamwork, unpredictability, and the opportunity to be there for people on what might be one of the worst days of their lives. My work with Begin the Turn in Kensington then exposed me to addiction, housing and food insecurity, and the barriers that can prevent people from getting consistent healthcare.
Last year, I unexpectedly became an emergency and trauma patient myself after lacerating my kidney during lacrosse. Being on the other side of that interaction reminded me how vulnerable and frightening it can be to be a patient who doesn’t know what is going to happen next. All of those experiences came together for me. I want to work in emergency medicine because I love the medicine itself, but I also want to work in underserved areas where I feel I can make a meaningful difference for people who too often fall through the cracks.
How did you become involved with the University?
I came to Rochester really excited about college and knew pretty early that I didn’t want my experience to be limited to just classes and lacrosse. I was lucky to have older girls on my team who immediately took me under their wing and introduced me to different organizations, professors, and opportunities around campus. Seeing how involved they were made me want to find my own communities and eventually do the same thing for younger students.
I became involved with Chabad, eventually serving on the board and later as President, and my relationships with professors led to opportunities like becoming a calculus TA. From there, one opportunity really led to another. Through a connection on campus, I was referred to Dr. Porter, who generously offered me a role in his lab as well as the chance to shadow him in his clinical role as a pediatric cardiologist. I quickly became fascinated by the work we were doing in the lab, while shadowing gave me my first real-life exposure to seeing how scientific research translates directly to patient care. Watching discoveries inform the treatment of both chronically and critically ill children gave me a much deeper appreciation for the connection between science and medicine. I think being involved in so many different parts of Rochester has made the university feel much smaller and more personal to me. I’ve been able to build relationships with people I probably never would have met through lacrosse or classes alone. Now, as an upperclassman, I really enjoy being able to connect younger students with those same resources and communities that older students once introduced to me.
